《声音》启明星专刊 VOICES for Daystar Academy VOICES Spring/Summer Edition 2019 | Page 26

ES BEIGAO CORNER
“What is EXCELLENCE?”
By Iris Cheng, Chinese Language Arts Teacher of Class 3A & 3B
A
s a newcomer to Daystar, I’m most impressed
by the monthly assembly of the elementary
school. There’s a theme for each month’s
assembly, and students, as the most
important participants, will interpret the theme in
various ways and display their interpretations.
Presentations by peers are more likely to resonate
with children. At each presentation made by other
classes, our boys and girls attentively listen, their
eyes reflecting their agreement and admiration.
They long for a chance to present too. Finally, a
chance came our way: Class 3B would have a
chance present on the theme “Excellence”, at an
assembly! When I announced the news to the class,
the children gave out a huge cheer. After a moment
of excitement, we started to feel perplexed about
the theme. “Excellence” is such an abstract word,
and it wasn’t immediately clear to our third graders
how best to interpret that word. To make it more
specific, we finally defined the word as “the
unceasing pursuit of self-growth”.
students volunteered to work behind the camera.
To involve everyone in the various roles, we invited
applications for every job. The children had to state
their competence for the job to the interviewer.
Then, children assigned to the job would be given
an “employment contract” that stipulated the
obligations to finish the job. When they signed their
names on the contract, applauses broke out in the
classroom in an atmosphere of unity and trust.
The shooting didn’t always go according to plan. We
encountered a series of problems including device
malfunctions, absence of actors and repeated
retakes. Finally, we overcame all the difficulties
and managed to finish the work through true
collaboration and teamwork. Memories constantly
pop up in my head about how we repeated one act
dozens of times, how the backstage team picked
up props, how children brainstormed with teachers
for scene designs, and how they smiled brightly
when the work was done. We cherish these precious
memories with the children.
With the theme, next we had to determine the form
of presentation. This year, our third graders have
been actively using the computers for classroom
activities, and were keen to apply their newfound
technological talent to this project. Therefore, we
decided to use apple computer’s iMovie software
for this presentation. The children were excited to
know we would shoot a short film. We set up a Class
3B “Excellence” crew. On the day of the assembly, the short film made by
Class 3B grasped the attention of the entire school
immediately. Everyone admired the creative ideas
from our boys and girls. The short film was a good
interpretation of “excellence”, as well as a glue
that tied all of the students together. Hopefully
the film has encouraged everyone to always strive
for excellence so that they can reach their full
potential.
A good script was necessary for a short film.
Through serendipity, we found an English video
on how our brain helps us succeed from Ms. Ma Na
when she prepared for our character education
classes. We thought this video would be a good fit
for the assembly theme. So, Ms. Ma became our
scriptwriter and adapted the English script into a
Chinese version suitable for kids. Please scan the QR code to take a look at the video,
thank you!
Now that we had the script, the next work was
casting, which was rather demanding, as every
kid wanted to come under the spotlight. So, we
held a class meeting to discuss different types
of work and their importance. As a result, many
Daystar Academy Spring/Summer Edition 2019